How Data Analytics Is Reshaping The Industry

For decades airlines carelessly discarded information about their customers, leaving this powerful tool in the hands of intermediaries and the GDSs. As airlines sought to wrest back market power and to reshape their focus from flying towards distribution and other revenue forms, this coincided with vastly increased computing power and an ability to assimilate vast amounts of data into something meaningful. 

This is transforming the way airlines think and work, from operational analytics to leveraging data to generate better commercial returns. But it is still early days and the potential of this art has many forms still to display. And of course it’s not just airlines who are playing in this park. Few organisations have more consumer data than Facebook, Amazon, Google – and the numbers of potential players is growing by the day.

Inevitably some airlines are more advanced than others, so the gap between big and small tends to grow.

• Exploring categories of activity where analytics is being used effectively
• Converting data to save costs and generate revenue. What streams are possible?
• Who has the capability to use data effectively? – is outsourcing necessary?
• Will the big consumer data aggregators play in the airlines’ park?